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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Review and Giveaway: The Gardening Notebook

To enter today's giveaway for a copy of The Gardening Notebook, simply leave a comment below sharing something you hope to do this year in your garden. The giveaway will end Tuesday night, so leave your comment before midnight Tuesday.

Today I want to share a brand new ebook with you, The Gardening Notebook by Angi Schneider. This new book is a wonderful resource for someone getting starting in gardening, someone looking for better ways to plan and organize their gardening, or for someone looking for specific tips and advice on growing specific crops. Not only does this book include a wealth of knowledge about growing individual crops, but it also provides numerous printables for organizing, planning, and reflecting on your garden.

The Gardening Notebook starts with a discussion on planning your garden space based on several considerations including your space, your crop preference, and your time constraints. It also discusses steps to get started with thoughts on companion planting, composting, and tilling. The book then goes into detail of growing specific edible crops with thoughts on pests and harvesting and storage. Angi provides easy to read notes based on her personal experience growing crops. The book is like getting a glimpse into her own gardening journal.

As useful as the information and introduction are to starting and succeeding in your garden, the strength of this ebook is in the printables throughout and at the end of the book. By simply printing this book and adding it to a binder you will instantly create a workable gardening journal for your notes. As a person who strives, yet never seems to achieve, an organized gardening notebook, this printable is likely to become an invaluable resource for me for years to come. Probably the most useful organization printable is the sheet outlining the planting schedule by dates for your specific region. With just a little planning you will know exactly when to plant your seeds both inside and outside.

This book is a welcome addition to my home and will provide the base of planning for my garden each year. You can get your own copy of the Gardening Notebook for a special offer price now through February 28th, or enter to win a free copy by simply leaving a comment below telling me about your plans for your own garden this year.

I look forward to hearing about your own gardening experiences in the year to come.

These opinions are my own, but for full disclosure, I did
receive an advance copy of this book.

23 comments:

The simple fact of having an already created planting schedule would make this book "heaven sent". We have tried to plant for year round veggies and haven't gotten it right for the past 3 years. We've not even been in our new place a full year so we feel we are probably not starting anything at an optimum time and are afraid to use our precious vintage seeds. Sounds as if the Gardening Notebook is what we need for many reasons.

This year I hope to accomplish three main goals. 1) Weed more often. Last year I had to leave town for a week, upon my return my basil and carrots were overrun, and I was too overwhelmed to know where to start, sadly, we lost them to the weeds. 2) Keep a better eye on the corn. Last year we planted it in the back, not visible from the house, raccoons ate them before they had a chance to get a foot tall. And lastly, 3) Construct a bamboo teepee for my sons children's garden. I plan to have baby boo pumpkins vine up the it. So not only will it be place for him to play, it will be pretty and functional too.

Looks like a great resource! To be honest our garden plans took up a whole blog post haha. You can find it on our blog.... but basics include a new watering system, a new greenhouse and lots and lots of mulch :)

I would like to try a raised garden this year so that the chickens and dogs don't get into my garden. I would also like to try "the three sisters " growing idea. Corn stalks act as a trellis for beans and squash covers the ground to protect and nourish the roots of the corn and beans. I would love this book for ideas and advice. Susan. my2bordercollies@comcast.net

I'm going to try some raised beds this year. Our soil is loaded with shale so my garden last year didn't do too well. I had all of my seedlings ready too! I was really discouraged. I would LOVE this book to help me get set up this year for a great harvest. wbmom09@gmail.com

Living in CT and following a major snowstorm, it is hard to imagine seeing the ground anytime soon, but this year I am planning on planting more seeds rather than buying plants. I love herbs and am looking forward to planting new themed herb beds.

This book looks like a very helpful resource. At The Micro Farm Project, I am trying to be more intentional, rather than gardening by the seat of my pants! Here is AZ, planting at the precisely correct time is extremely important as we have two short growing seasons rather than one long season, so I really need to be more organized in order to maximize the productivity of my garden.

Gardening has been such a challenge so far - I could use all the help I can get! SW Colorado- on un-amended clay soil without fencing or irrigation and plentiful deer, and after my various attempts to battle grasshoppers and compacted clay soil the past 7 years (no tiller)... We were gifted with a 13'x 33' greenhouse to reconstruct. I am highly excited about the prospect of filling it vertically, and in raised beds within it. I hope to raise some squashes and sunflowers for supplemental chicken feed, and try blueberries in 5-gal buckets as well (a limited area that can cover w/ material that serves as grasshopper/bird netting). I have many, many, garden-related schemes and dreams - we may even move elsewhere in order to attain them! Thanks for the opportunity to join this contest- I love the ideas of tracking, organizing, and getting the most out of my efforts with good planning!

We are planning our first garden. We have the raised beds in place and composting and have begun to build a fence around the future garden. I am in the process of planning what to plant and where to plant it. I can use all the guidance I can get! Thanks for this offer! ~Katie

I had a garden last year, but this year I plan on making it twice as large and planting more variety of plants. I always plant and can tomatoes and peppers. Last year I learned to make bread and butter pickles. I also canned fresh green beans. This year I want to grow and can corn and peas and pumpkin and maybe pickled beets! Come on spring!!

This sounds like a very helpful resource! In our garden this year, we are totally revamping it and adding a fence all the way around and multiple beds with gravel in between to cut down on weeding. We are also trying a couple new crops this year, like peas and corn.

Our carrot crop was great last year and I'm tripling the amount of carrot seeds this year. I'm growing leeks for the first time this year and doubling my efforts with the tomatoes. Blueberry bushes are going in and more strawberries. Thanks for the giveaway!

Here is some special information for those of you who feel the call of the great outdoors when spring arrives! No matter how green your thumb, gardening is a physically demanding activity that can take its toll on you if you're not prepared. Think of it as a sport, you need to prepare and condition yourself. Click Here, for more info.